Conversations After Midnight
by LadieLazarus
Summary: Soon after Kitty and Kurt's return to the X-men, a night of revelry ensues. Pryde/Wisdom.


Title: Conversations After Midnight You'll Want to be Too Drunk to Remember

Fandom: X-men

Pairing: Pryde/Wisdom (sort of)

Rating: PG-13 (alcohol-induced language)

Prompt: 094 Independence

Summary: Set directly after Kitty's original return to the X-men after the disbanding of Excalibur.

Beta'd by lyssie

Kitty tipped the shot glass upside down, putting it definitively on the table.

"Ta-Da!"

"Well done, pun'kin." Logan nodded his assent.

"Indeed." Kurt smiled, white fangs glinting against indigo skin. "You are holding your own quite well, Katzchen."

"Nat'rlly, bub." Kitty's head nodded a little too emphatically, but given the fact that she'd gone through more than her share of vodka in the last few hours, that was not surprising.

"Was that to me or to him?" Logan grinned around his cigar. He was enjoying this new aspect to his relationship with Kitty. Seeing her drink was definitely amusing.

"Was t'me." Kitty shrugged shakily. "C'n I 've one, too?"

"A Cuban?"

"Yeah. Sure. Whatever they are."

"Pun'kin, do you remember what happened the last time you had one of these?" Logan's memory flitted back to that skinny teenager choking and hacking her way through her first cigar.

"'M older 'n wiser now, ol' man." Kitty shook her head, steadying herself on the table a moment later when the rapid movement proved too much for her.

"I see." Logan nodded carefully. "Well, Elf, whatdya think? Should I give it to her?"

"She is an adult, Logan. If she wishes to try one, I don't see why we should stop her. Unless of course, you are adverse to giving Katzchen one of your priceless zigarren." Kurt shrugged, more than a little inebriated, himself.

"Nah. She can have one." Logan cut a cigar and handed it to his young protégé. She was busy trying to refill a shot glass with clear liquor.

"Hold on a minute." She held out one hand. "Gotta fill this 'gain."

"Let me do that, Katzchen." Kurt offered graciously, using his tail to pluck the bottle from her hand. "You concentrate on your cigar, ja?"

"Y'r a good friend, Fuzzy." Kitty smiled. "A good one."

"Danke schone."

"Heh. Wayne Newton." Kitty snickered. "'Kay, Mr. Sensei, show me how this works."

"Okay." Logan leaned forward, sparking his lighter. "When I say so, inhale."

"Right." Kitty was taking this way too seriously.

"Now."

Kitty inhaled sharply, choking slightly on the smoke, but for the most part, holding it together quite well.

She leaned back in her chair, taking a slightly deeper drag on the cigar. Again, she coughed a little, but essentially managed to look perfectly natural smoking it by the third or fourth attempt.

"How d'I look?"

"Great. Nothin' better than a woman with a stogie." Logan smirked, ashing his own cigar into the dish in the center of the table.

"Awesome."

"Hey, look, while you're good and liquored up, and probably won't remember it, I've got something to tell you." Logan smirked and Kitty shot out an unsteady hand in response.

"No, Logan. I'm no' gonna sleep with you."

Logan's face twisted into a horrified grimace. Kurt chuckled, helping himself to another beer from the cooler.

"And now that my dick is entirely for show…"

"Knew it. You think I'm ugly." Kitty did her best to maintain a straight face but failed halfway through, dissolving into giggles. Logan sighed, shaking his head.

"Yes. That's exactly it, 'Cat. It has nothing to do with the fact that I just don't think of ya that way."

"Cause I'm Pun'kin'." Kitty offered, with another vigorous, drunk nod.

"'Zactly." Logan smiled fondly. "Now, where were we? Oh yeah. I had somethin' to tell ya."

"What?"

"I'm sorry about earlier." He shrugged. Logan wasn't the type to apologize easily, but when he genuinely believed that he was in the wrong, he could always be counted on to eventually attempt to make it right.

"What the hells are y'talking about?" Kitty ashed her cigar, taking another deep drag.

"In the Danger Room, when I made that crack about Wisd—"

"Nope. Don't say his name." Kitty shook her head. Her voice took on a dark tinge. Logan sighed.

"All right. Then what do I call him?"

"You don't." Kitty shrugged. "'S no need ta talk about 'im."

"Fine. But I still want to apologize for bringing him up like that."

"Eh. Got y'back with the thing 'bout Mariko." She tried to shrug again, teetering a little in her chair. Kurt shot his tail out, catching her. "Thanks, Fuzzy."

"Naturlich."

"Bless you." Kitty giggled.

"Hey, 'Cat?"

"Huh?"

"I know that you said that you didn't want to talk about him—"

"'Cause I don't."

"Right, but I just want to take the opportunity to ask you how you're feeling?"

"Well, lessee." Kitty raised her hand, ticking off items on her fingers. "In the last six months, my boyfriend walked out on me, I left Excalibur, a very good friend o' mine'll prob'ly die soon of a disease that we can't stop, everyone and her brother is tryin' to hook me back up with my ex-boyfriend, even though he and I've already decided that that's not what's best for us, and I can't seem to get my groove back fighting-wise." She took another deep drag on the cigar. "I'm peachy!" She raised her shot glass before tipping it back again, draining the contents and placing it on the table a little harder than necessary.

"Great. Well, that's all that I wanted to know." Logan shrugged easily, downing the rest of his own beer in similar fashion.

"Katzchen?"

"Kurtzchen?" Kitty responded in identical tone, cocking her head comically. Kurt chuckled.

"Are you sure it wouldn't do you some good to talk about it?"

"Nah. I think it would do me some massive good, though, to have another shot." Kitty patted the spade tip of his tail where it had come to rest on her opposite shoulder. "Can you pour it for me, Fuzzy? I don't trust my motor skills right now."

"Are you sure that's a good idea, leibechen?"

She appeared to be considering Kurt's question before she responded. Finally, she made her decision.

"Yup. I really don' think that I should be th'one to pour't."

Logan laughed so hard that he nearly fell out of his chair.

"Good call, darlin'."

Kurt rolled his eyes, which was completely imperceptible to anyone but him due to his unique ocular structure, and obliged her, but with only half of a shot. Kitty didn't seem to notice.

"Fine. But in exchange, Katzchen, I want to hear how you're really doing." Kurt put the bottle of vodka back on the table. "Without the sarcasm. Tell me for real. This is your best friend talking."

"Fine." Kitty finished the shot all at once, clearly gearing up for the discussion. "'M miserable."

"Uh-huh." Logan nodded. "We know."

"I wan' him t'fall into a pit of snakes or somethin' else that's real bitey." Kitty's brow lowered. "He walked out on me!" She held out her glass for another shot, and Logan poured it for her. "He jus'… He left!"

"Ja. Ich sage." Kurt patted her shoulder, with his hand this time, as his tail held his own cigar. "It's good that you're talking about it."

"I used to wake up all the time, an' forget. Then, I'd 'member, an' it was real hard to get out of bed." She shrugged heavily. Logan felt his heart go out to her. He also wanted his claws to go out to Pete.

"But, all in all, I think I'm gonna be okay." Kitty said suddenly with an air of finality. "It's getting' easier, really. Plus, I've got great friends an' they love me."

"That's true, ja." Kurt nodded.

Kitty smiled at him for a minute. Then, something else occurred to her.

"'Course, the vodka helps."

"Won't be helpin' come tomorrow morning, darlin'." Logan sniggered.

"True. It really won't" His protégé was clearly not looking forward to the next morning. "But, at th' moment? I feel awesome." She spread her arms wide, nearly tipping herself off of the chair again. Kurt and Logan both dived, catching the back of her chair and sitting her back up at the table. She giggled. "Thanks, guys."

"Anytime." Logan drank more beer, clearly not bothered by the service he'd just rendered to his good friend. After all, what were drinking buddies for but to keep your head from splattering all over the floor?

They sat there in companionable silence, Kitty finishing her cigar, and drinking a few more shots of vodka, and Logan and Kurt each finishing another beer.

Kitty was resting her head on her crossed arms a few moments later, when suddenly she turned her face to Logan.

"Guess what?"

"What, pun'kin'?"

"I think I wan' go t'bed now." She sighed.

"I think that's a great idea." He nodded. "Elf? You think you can get her upstairs okay?"

"Ja. I think I can handle it." Kurt stood, extending his arm to Kitty. "Can you stand, leibechen?"

"Yup." She stood, albeit shakily, and collapsed against his side. They headed towards the house, her stumbling steps keeping them slow, but steady.

"I think you're going to be all right, Katzchen." Kurt said when they got to the side porch. "I know that you're in pain right now, and I'm sorry, but I really do think that, eventually, you're going to find someone who cares for you and who you care for, and you're going to be a better person for it."

"Thass nice, Fuzzy." She nodded. "You know what I think?"

"Nein."

"I think that there's never going to be a point when I don't think back on my relationship with Pete and realize that I let the best thing that's ever going to happen t'me walk out without even tryin' to stop 'im."

Kurt didn't really know what to say to that, but her timely vomiting all over him saved him from having to find a response.


End file.
